On 13 June 2014, a wounded adult male Buzzard was found near its nest with two chicks in Friesland; the bird died in a rehabilitation centre. To register how the female would cope with the loss of her partner, a wildlife camera was placed near the nest to record events. During a nest visit on 22 June, to collect the sd-card from the camera, the oldest chick turned out to have died. As both his legs were found on the nest, it was presumed to have died from malnutrition (a likely scenario because of the male’s demise), but photos taken with the wildlife camera showed an adult Goshawk grabbing the chick from the nest on 17 June (when 26 days old). The legs of this chick ‘reappeared’ on camera in the night of 18/19 June. It is suggested that the female Buzzard must have found the remains of the plucked chick in the vicinity of the nest, and transported the remains to the nest as food for her remaining chick. In fact, on 19 July she was recorded stripping sinews from the legs with which she fed her remaining young. It shows that an apparently obvious scenario – chick dies from malnutrition and is fed to remaining chick - may not be always true.

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R. Riem Vis, & V. van Bergen. (2015). Niet wat het lijkt te zijn: hoe sterfte van een adulte Buizerd Buteo buteo in de jongenfase leidt tot een opmerkelijke waarneming. De Takkeling, 23(2), 141–144.